Lithuania's State Tax Inspectorate has launched a thorough scrutiny of companies and shareholders of Vilniaus Prekyba (Vilnius Trade) group and MG Baltic concern. The decision was taken in light of a proposal from the inspectorate's task force, which had analyzed earlier checks of the operations of both groups, to apply the strictest form of control – integrated tax inspections, the inspectorate said LETA/BNS.

The inspectorate last year said
it was conducting checks of MG Baltic
president and sole shareholder, Darius
Mockus, and four companies of the concern. Since the summer of 2015, tax
inspectors also checked possible tax evasion schemes in Vilniaus Prekyba, one of Lithuania's biggest business groups.

Dainoras Bradauskas was sacked from the inspectorate's chief in
early 2017 over unlawful influence upon the probes – he provided MG Baltic vice-president Raimondas Kurlianskis with information
about tax checks of shareholders of Vilniaus
Prekyba and VP group. In the
biggest political corruption probe of 2016, Kurlianskis is suspected of bribing
the Liberal Movement's former leader Eligijus
Masiulis.

EU economy’s future: slow but positive growthGrowth in all EU states will continue in 2019-20, though at a slower pace than before. The largest EU’s economies will grow at around 1,5-1,7%, mostly in Poland, Spain and Holland. The Baltic States’ growth will continue to be on the positive trend.